As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising

179 Pages·2010·1.37 MB·English

As Heard on TV:
Popular Music in Advertising
Bethany Klein
As He Ard on TV:
Po Pul Ar Music in Ad Ver Tising
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As Heard on TV:
Popular Music in Advertising
BeTHAny Klein
University of Leeds, UK
© Bethany Klein 2009
All rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Bethany Klein has asserted her moral right under the copyright, designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identi.ed as the author of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing limited Ashgate Publishing company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Klein, Bethany
As heard on TV: popular music in advertising. – (Ashgate popular and folk music series)
1. Music in advertising 2. Popular music – History and criticism 3. Television
advertising
i. Title
306.4'8424
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Klein, Bethany
As heard on TV: popular music in advertising / Bethany Klein.
p. cm. – (Ashgate popular and folk music series)
includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-6665-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Music in advertising. 2. Popular
music–History and criticism. 3. Television advertising. i. Title.
Ml3790.K467 2009
781.5'4–dc22
2008037174
isBn 978-0-7546-6665-3
c ontents
General Editor’s Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
introduction 1
1 As Heard on TV: The Marriage of Popular Music and Advertising 9
2 selling r evolution: The r ole of Authorship in Music l icensing 23
3 commercial Art: Advertising as an Artistic Vehicle for
Music Placement 41
4 “The new r adio”: Music l icensing as a r esponse to industry Woe 59
5 in Perfect Harmony: Popular Music and cola Advertising 79
6 Taming r ebellion: Advertising’s control over Meaning 97
7 negotiating the Future of Popular Music in Advertising 121
Appendix 141
Bibliography 149
Index 161
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g eneral e ditor’s Preface
The upheaval that occurred in musicology during the last two decades of the
twentieth century has created a new urgency for the study of popular music
alongside the development of new critical and theoretical models. A relativistic
outlook has replaced the universal perspective of modernism (the international
ambitions of the 12-note style); the grand narrative of the evolution and dissolution
of tonality has been challenged, and emphasis has shifted to cultural context,
reception and subject position. Together, these have conspired to eat away at the
status of canonical composers and categories of high and low in music. A need has
arisen, also, to recognize and address the emergence of crossovers, mixed and new
genres, to engage in debates concerning the vexed problem of what constitutes
authenticity in music and to offer a critique of musical practice as the product of
free, individual expression.
Popular musicology is now a vital and exciting area of scholarship, and the Ashgate
Popular and Folk Music Series presents some of the best research in the field.
Authors are concerned with locating musical practices, values and meanings in
cultural context, and draw upon methodologies and theories developed in cultural
studies, semiotics, poststructuralism, psychology and sociology. The series focuses
on popular musics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is designed to
embrace the world’s popular musics from Acid Jazz to Zydeco, whether high tech
or low tech, commercial or non-commercial, contemporary or traditional.
Professor Derek B. Scott
Professor of critical Musicology
university of l eeds
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Acknowledgements
This book and the PhD dissertation from which it originates have benefited from
the involvement of a variety of people on two continents. At the university of
Pennsylvania, I thank Klaus Krippendorff, Katherine Sender, and David Grazian
for their interest in and counsel on this project, as committee members and
mentors, and especially my advisor Barbie Zelizer, for her unwavering support
and invaluable advice. in the uK, i am grateful to dave Hesmondhalgh for his
encouragement of my research and transatlantic move, and simon Frith for his
early suggestions regarding scope and organization. Thanks to series editor Derek
scott and Ashgate senior commissioning editor Heidi May for their enthusiasm
and guidance during the publishing process. Portions of chapter 4 appeared in
Media, Culture & Society and an earlier version of chapter 5 appeared in Popular
Music and Society; I thank the publishers for allowing me to include the revised
versions here.
i am indebted to my informants, for sharing their time and their thoughtful
perspectives with me. each interview allowed me to sharpen the details of
the cultural practice i have attempted to map, and i owe the richness of these
descriptions entirely to them. i hope that my portrayals come close to representing
their intelligence, passion, and humor.
A number of friends have kindly combed sections for typos and unclear logic,
and provided a trusty sounding board for my ideas. I thank my current collaborator
claire Wardle, and former Annenberg peers nicole Maurantonio, Matt carlson,
and the culture club for their helpful comments. i am especially grateful to Adela
Smith, full-time best friend and part-time copyeditor, for keeping my prose clean
and my mind sane. Thanks to my family for being proud of me, whether or not
they understand what i do, and to the many friends who supported me in more
subtle ways, by reminding me to attend music events, enjoy restaurants, and share
pub quiz duties, when I could have been reading and writing; Nicole Mercurio,
Reyna Howkins, and Jeff Perkins were particularly proficient and entertaining
distractions during the research process. Finally, I thank Morrissey, who taught me
to take popular music seriously: I will never forget the songs that saved my life.